December 08, 2008

Top Religion Story of 2008?

As Muslims mark the end of the hajj, Buddhists celebrate their founder’s enlightenment and Roman Catholics celebrate Mary’s Immaculate Conception, religion reporters on Monday began observing their annual rite of stepping back to contemplate more recent pivotal moments in the religious world.

On Monday, Time magazine released its Top 10 list of religion stories and the Religion Newswriters Association asked its members to rank a roster of 25 contenders. I, too, compiled a list—but kept it a little more local.

1. Cardinal George releases deposition

Historically, the archdiocese has insisted on keeping confidential the settlements with more than 250 survivors of clergy sex abuse. But in May, Cardinal Francis George opened the books on a litany of failures by church officials as he announced a $12.7 million lawsuit settlement by the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese. By releasing the details and unveiling his own sworn deposition, the archbishop revealed a flawed and secretive system where priests and bishops employed by the archdiocese to this day protected their own.

2. Obama leaves Trinity United Church of Christ

Sen. Barack Obama and his family withdrew their membership from Trinity United Church of Christ when conservative pundits refused to leave the South Side church alone. Severing more than two decades of ties to the church where he found Jesus Christ, married his wife, Michelle, and baptized his two daughters, Obama said he made the decision for his own political needs and in an effort to allow the church a return to some normalcy. The church’s retired pastor Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. has since become something of a celebrity. Obama has since become president.

3. Death of Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Imam W. Deen Mohammed, the rebellious son of the late Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad who broke from black nationalism and moved thousands of African-Americans to mainstream Islam, died at the age of 74.

4. Women’s ordination comes to the Chicago Archdiocese

Barbara Zeman of Edgewater joined 34 other women who have been ordained Roman Catholic priests by an activist group hoping to pressure the church into dropping the ban on women’s ordination. The Vatican has warned that participants in such ordinations are automatically excommunicated, meaning they can’t receive let alone offer the sacraments.

5. Spertus Institute cancels map exhibit

Under intense pressure from angry Jewish patrons, the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies abruptly closed the controversial "Imaginary Coordinates" exhibition, which explored Israeli and Palestinian concepts of homeland and how that is defined both historically and in the present day. Critics charged that the combination of historical Holy Land maps and contemporary artwork cast Israel in a negative light.

What do you think? Send in your own nominations for Chicago’s Top Religion Story.

Comments

My favorite story is when the pretentious, bigoted pig Rep. Monique Davis got her ass handed to her by outraged atheist groups regarding her comments to Rob Sherman during an Illinois General Assembly meeting (Eric Zorn link: http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/04/rep-monique-dav.html). I believe this event represented a paradigm shift in political attitudes toward non-believers, as was seen in this year's election in North Carolina where incumbent Elizabeth Dole ran a horrific smear campaign against her opponent Kay Hagan because Hagan had the gall to meet with and speak to an atheist organization (the nerve!).